I got this zimaboard to get past the infernal "modern" bios boot mess. I am able to boot from a usb thumb drive, but the other usb is for the keyboard. To attache my external usb hard drive I unplug the boot usb first and plug in the external drive I want to scan. Spinrite doesn't see the drive. Is there a hidden magic to make spinrite see a newly attached usb drive? My instinct tells me, "No," since hidden features isn't very Steve Gibson.
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BootAble – FreeDOS boot testing freeware
To obtain direct, low-level access to a system's mass storage drives, SpinRite runs under a GRC-customized version of FreeDOS which has been modified to add compatibility with all file systems. In order to run SpinRite it must first be possible to boot FreeDOS.
GRC's “BootAble” freeware allows anyone to easily create BIOS-bootable media in order to workout and confirm the details of getting a machine to boot FreeDOS through a BIOS. Once the means of doing that has been determined, the media created by SpinRite can be booted and run in the same way.
The participants here, who have taken the time to share their knowledge and experience, their successes and some frustrations with booting their computers into FreeDOS, have created a valuable knowledgebase which will benefit everyone who follows.
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I would think that Spinrite doesn't know about plug 'n play devices. You'd probably need to attach the device first, then boot the O/S under which Spinrite runs.
You cannot do what you attempted to do.
SpinRite can only see a USB drive if the BIOS sees it.
The BIOS only scans for and "sees" USB drives on system power-up.
Hot swapping is not an option for the BIOS or therefore SpinRite 6.1.
It will be for SpinRite 7 Pro.
SpinRite 6.1 prefers SATA or IDE because it can use its own driver for maximal speed. USB is only driven through the BIOS, and has limits on the speed and number of buffers for operations.
Never the less, given that you have USB device, having it work with SpinRite is better than not having it work, even if it's slower. So it would appear your solution is to "permanently" install FreeDOS onto your ZimaBoard, so that it boots to FreeDOS where you can then start SpinRite. This will eliminate the need to boot from USB and free up the USB for your drive.
Thank y'all for help. The best answer is to remove the^$&%$^ case, the usb adapter, and attach it with proper disk drive cables. MUCH better.
Note that the special freedos thing (or whatever it's called) is lovely. The msdossy edit command works. Before i tested that I did the old copy con filename.txt
and it worked. The type command worked. I think this would be a fantatic environment for tools for security scanning and such. No network is safer. I wonder if it would run Thexder.
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